Caps not firing

[RedFeather]

I've posted this problem with an older 1858 (Hawes circa '72) before. Half the nipples won't fire unless I back them out with a bit of tin foil as a washer. Supposedly a gunsmith worked on the hammer throat to get it to hit harder but still no go. Messing around with it using only caps I noticed that the ones that did go off had half moon impressions on the right half of the cap, while the duds showed the hammer to be hitting the notches slightly to the right. The cylinder locks up dead tight with no play between the cylinder bolt and all stops.

I saw a post here recently with a similar problem in a Colt (?) and the owner said he ground down one side of the hammer which might have been bent or too wide, but I can't find the string.

Is it also possible to shim the hammer to the left? I'm thinking the frame may be out of alignment as I recall an old article in Muzzle Blasts about how tuners sometimes have to bend the frames on these Italian Remingtons.

Anyway, all help will be appreciated as it will likely end up as a nice table lamp elsewise.

Thanks in advance,

RedFeather

 

[bwhoffman]

see this topic, issue could be the same..... Post#523215

its down this page about 12 posts!

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

You also may have the wrong length nipples...are they original to the 35 year-old revolver, or did somebody do you a favor and replace them with nipples that are just a smidge too short? If they are originals, in 35 years they could have been beaten-down some and cleaned-up around the edges. This will also cause the caps to not ignite due to the change in length.

If the hammer doesn't bind-up when comming down onto the nipples, I wouldn't be so fast to bend ANYTHING! I'd just buy longer nipples with the same thread and see if your problem goes away by itself! A few thousands' of an inch makes all of the difference in these guns!

Dave

 

[RedFeather]

They are the originals. Maybe twenty-thirty rounds through this gun. It's been put away most of it's life due to the above. I need to also check the cylinder/bore alignment. My first guess was maybe the cylinder stops were cut just a hair off as it is fairly consistent on each nipple. If so, even with longer nipples I may be smacking the forcing cone.

I will check the earlier post.